Trekking centre wins appeal over council ban
CONTROVERSIAL pony trekking company Highlands Unbridled has won its appeal against an enforcement order but could face legal action for allegedly operating without a licence.
Company operator Graham O’Neill appealed to the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA) after Highland Council banned the centre from using the access onto the A9 from Keeper’s Cottage, Strathsteven, near Brora, late last year.
The local authority believed the business failed to comply with conditions of a retrospective planning application which would allow commercial use of the address as a pony trekking centre. It alleged that Highlands Unbridled continued to operate at Keeper’s Cottage despite failing to meet the requirements.
The notice was served on Mr O’Neill and his partner Jan O’Neill as well as their landlords Sutherland Estates and tenant farmer Malcolm McCall, whose field the couple use.
But DPEA principal reporter Michael Shiel announced last week that the enforcement had been quashed. His decision notice explained that Mr O’Neill was unable to meet the planning permission conditions because the landowners refused to give consent for the work.
It said Mr O’Neill claimed that the pony trekking business ceased trading on October 31 last year "although the riding establishment licence was valid until 15 December 2014".
Highland Council was "strongly of the opinion that the use has not ceased" and offered evidence from the appellant’s website and from a Twitter account of someone who had undertaken one of the company’s holidays in April.
It was also said to have prepared a report for the procurators fiscal so they could take action against the O’Neills for operating a riding establishment without the necessary licence.
Mr O’Neill said that horses continued to be ridden out from the appeal site in order to exercise them and that hay and feed continue to be delivered and muck to be removed.
Mr Shiel wrote: "It is evident that the company has continued to advertise and organise riding holidays throughout Scotland, but this does not, in my view, demonstrate that the appellant is continuing to use the appeal site as a pony trekking centre.
"In his further response to the information supplied by the council, the appellant has pointed out that the holiday referred to in the Twitter account was in the Great Glen and did not leave from the appeal site.
"Likewise, any other long distance rides that have been run since October 2014 have not started from these premises.
"I consider that continuing to advertise, organise and undertake riding holidays elsewhere in Scotland from the appeal site does not constitute the use of that site as a pony trekking centre. The fact that horses continue to be kept on the site, with the necessary activities that entails, also does not, to my mind, constitute use as a pony trekking centre.
"This term implies to me that customers visit the site and rides take place from the site. Whether the keeping of horses at the site amounts to a breach in relation to the need for a riding establishment licence is a separate matter and will be for the court to determine if necessary."
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He continued: "I appreciate that there is disputed evidence in this case but consider that the appellant should be given the benefit of the doubt.
"He states that the use of the site as a pony trekking centre ceased on 31st October 2014 and, on balance, I consider that the evidence provided by the council does not contradict that."
The report said Highlands Unbridled was renting new premises near Tain which have planning permission for a pony trekking centre. It also revealed that Sutherland Estates intends selling Keeper’s Cottage.
Speaking to the Northern Times this week, Jan O’Neill claimed Highlands Unbridled had been the victim of a "vendetta" by local people who were trying to force it out of business.
She said the company had lost thousands of pounds through cancelled trek bookings because of the problems.
She confirmed that the business carried out a charity trek in aid of World Horse Highland after its riding establishment licence expired, raising more than £800 for the cause.
She said: "We applied for a licence on a new premises which we’re hoping will come through in the next few weeks.
"We thought it was being granted by the start of May, but it’s been delayed. It has been caused in no small part by a really vicious campaign that a small group of neighbours have mounted.
"We’ve done a charity ride for World Horse Welfare because we didn’t want to cancel their booking because we thought that would be unfair, they were coming from America. Any money that we made went to charity.
"We just tried to keep our heads above water and keep going really. It’s been a struggle, it would have been very easy to pack it all in and walk away.
"But it doesn’t just affect us, it affects other local businesses so we feel it’s really important for us to try and keep going. We bring a lot of money into the local area."
Highland Council’s area environmental health manager Chris Ratter confirmed that Highlands Unbridled had submitted an application for a licence at Northwilds, Fendom, near Tain.
A report is due to go to the council’s licensing committee on June 16 and a decision on the licence will be made at that point.
He added: "If they are operating without a licence then that will be something for the fiscal to consider."
According to the UK government, those running a riding establishment without a licence could be fined up to £5,000, be imprisoned for up to three months or both.
